Generally speaking, I wouldn't try to stop the dragon's flight, I'd do things to make its hit & run tactics less effective.
1) Do lots of damage to it. Disintigrate is a fave.
2) Nullify its attacks. If its doing strafing runs, erect walls to give you cover. Or make it change its flight path with an Acid Fog in its way at the last minute.
3) Alter its mobility by taking away its ability to fly properly- Baleful Polymorph, Reverse Gravity. Flesh to Stone could be fun if it fails its save...but not if its right over the party when it does so or momentum turns it into a dragon-shaped bowling ball...
4) Give it something else to deal with by summoning an ally of some kind. A Djinn or Elemental may just give it pause enough to make the encounter survivable.
5) Judo the situation: Magnificent Mansion out of the combat for a while...or even use it like a fortress from which you can launch sorties against the drake. Coupled with Control Weather, you might make the environs too harsh for the dragon's tactics to be effective.
6) Its possible- remotely- that flying at the wrong elevation + a failed save could make Evard's Black Tentacles effective against the dragon. It is a long shot, though.
In the non-spell tactical choices is the Combat Reflexes feat chain, including Stand Still.
I played a Dex-based Monk/Kensai at a Dallas ENWorld Gameday who had the Combat Reflexes feat chain, used a Greatspear with Pole Master (which lets a monk use a specific polearm as a Monk weapon) and potions of Enlarge. Her melee attacks were one of the main factors the party fended off a pair of dragons (at least in part due to the fact that the Knight couldn't reach them). Her nasty base damage, AoOs, FoB extended reach, and the CR/Hold the Line/Stand Still/Deft Opportunist feats, she helped pin them down every once in a while, until they were forced to retreat from the battlefield.
1) Do lots of damage to it. Disintigrate is a fave.
2) Nullify its attacks. If its doing strafing runs, erect walls to give you cover. Or make it change its flight path with an Acid Fog in its way at the last minute.
3) Alter its mobility by taking away its ability to fly properly- Baleful Polymorph, Reverse Gravity. Flesh to Stone could be fun if it fails its save...but not if its right over the party when it does so or momentum turns it into a dragon-shaped bowling ball...
4) Give it something else to deal with by summoning an ally of some kind. A Djinn or Elemental may just give it pause enough to make the encounter survivable.
5) Judo the situation: Magnificent Mansion out of the combat for a while...or even use it like a fortress from which you can launch sorties against the drake. Coupled with Control Weather, you might make the environs too harsh for the dragon's tactics to be effective.
6) Its possible- remotely- that flying at the wrong elevation + a failed save could make Evard's Black Tentacles effective against the dragon. It is a long shot, though.
In the non-spell tactical choices is the Combat Reflexes feat chain, including Stand Still.
I played a Dex-based Monk/Kensai at a Dallas ENWorld Gameday who had the Combat Reflexes feat chain, used a Greatspear with Pole Master (which lets a monk use a specific polearm as a Monk weapon) and potions of Enlarge. Her melee attacks were one of the main factors the party fended off a pair of dragons (at least in part due to the fact that the Knight couldn't reach them). Her nasty base damage, AoOs, FoB extended reach, and the CR/Hold the Line/Stand Still/Deft Opportunist feats, she helped pin them down every once in a while, until they were forced to retreat from the battlefield.
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